Our World Volume 2

Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ...conferences with the German ministers, asked for a definite plan to stabilize the nation's finances and meet future obligations. They were faced with unsatisfactorily vague replies on the difficulty of meeting demands and with a request for an international loan of 500,000,000 gold marks and a long release from payments. The financial control desired by the French was stubbornly opposed; and special THE SURPRISE OF THE ORIENT "Help!" cries France, after favoring the Turkish Nationalists against the Greeks in the Near East and now finding herself threatened by a Moslem monster with Bolshevik whiskers. "I didn't mean to he so successful." (Bagaria in El Sol of Madrid.) advices from Berlin indicated that a measure of this sort wotdd be widely resented by the people as an invasion of sovereignty and might lead to the fall of the government. The meetings in Berlin ended with admissions of practical failure to find a program. Meanwhile, the committee of foreign experts, including American, British, French and Swedish members, reported that the paper mark could be stabilized at 3,500 to the dollar by utilizing the Reichsbank's gold reserve, if a twoyear moratorium, which was favored, were granted. Paper marks had dropped on the exchange to nearly 10,000 to the dollar. Business groups in France and Germany were reported to be increasing' their endeavors for a practical arrangement for reconstruction work in France independently of the diplomatic negotiations; but the German industrial leader Stinnes was said to be withdrawing from the plan to deliver materials to the French, arguing that the drop in marks made it impossible of fulfillment. The relation of the whole discussion to the problem of the Allied debts was shown by France's...show more